//------------------------------// // 10. What they do in the shadows... // Story: Chasing Eternity. // by the frank //------------------------------// Earlier that day… Sunset galloped to her quarters. Blueprint never raised his voice, and when he sent a message to her during Day Court it was urgent. She knew that either there was a dragon attack, or… When she arrived at her quarters, Blueprint shut the door, and drew the curtains. “What is this about?” “Her highness is in great danger!” “Me or Twilight?” “...Princess Twilight, your highness.” “Thanks for clearing that out! But what kind of danger? Did you find out more about miss Entee? Is she some sort of murderer or a terrorist?” Blueprint calmly walked over to his table where he laid out a few documents. “I will answer all of your questions in time, your highness. The first one… I am afraid I can’t give you a satisfying answer to that. The answer to the second one is, yes. Enough to put her in jail for twentythree years, but no, she is not a murderer, and there is no signs of her being a terrorist. And it’s not that, that is the reason I called you here.” He stopped and took a moment to check if his papers were in order. “I know now why there is no previous records of The Contessa.” “Oh! Why?” “Because she is dead, your highness.” “DEAD?” Sunset couldn’t believe her ears. For a second she was sure that Blueprint must be joking, but she knew him well enough to know he never did. “Yes, your highness, and before you say, ‘but I saw her move yesterday’, let me explain. As you ordered, I searched deeper. I found very little, and in a bit of a desperate attempt I decided on this order of actions. Full white unicorns are very rare, as you know. So I, in a way, widened my search, for any kind of documents related to white unicorns. But those were few, and one of the reasons was rather peculiar. There hasn’t been a full-white unicorn in Equestria for sixty years.” “Sixty? But… I know the answer but… are you sure?” Blueprint nodded. “I am afraid so, your highness. It is almost considered a skin condition these days.” “Don’t say that so Twilight hears you.” “I know, your highness. That is one of the reason I haven’t called upon her as well. And with that in consideration, doctors are on the lookout for white unicorns. Well, white pegasi as well… I am sorry, I find this subject rather fascinating, but we must hurry. And even with all that, the contessa is barely thirty. She could be a fraud in that way too, but I managed to check. Her fur is all natural. She is indeed a white unicorn.” “Of a type that hasn’t existed in sixty years.” “Yes. And the last one was a stallion, who died in battle in the last Griffonia war. Of course there are methods… but he was also shorter, and one can only alter that much with magic (your highness excluded of course), so that was a dead end. Which is ironic since. Ehrm.” Sunset shot her secretary a glance. Almost a joke? Bluprint must be more upset than she expected. “Documents of recent years regarding white unicorns were few, most of them regarded cosmetics but I stumbled on a few rather peculiar reports about ponies that claimed to have been drugged and taken away… and being… eaten. Well, not eaten, rather… to say it right out, they said they had been the victims of a…vampire.” Sunset could do nothing but stare. Her eyes looked into his, trying to decide if he was serious. “Yes, your highness. It is remarkable, with all the strange beings that exists in Equestria, that such a simple thing as vampire should be considered superstition. But the fact remains, the police in Manehattan did not take this matter seriously. But I am afraid to say that I was getting rather desperate, so I decided to go to Manehattan myself to end that trail once and for all. Unfortunately I can not rule it out. I found one of the victims, a blue Pegasus colt. He recalled very little, since he was dizzy, but he remembered the pain, and a pair of red eyes. He did have a wound on his neck that looked suspicious. Before I left, he recalled another thing. The bite had made his mind clear for a moment. There was a call for a “Sneaky” to remove him from the premise. He saw another pony, unicorn, that lifted him up. He thinks she was the one who drugged him. And as she carried him out, he got a glimpse of, and I quote, “A vampire”.” He paused. “White fur. Black mane. Red eyes, and a red scarf that made an impression on him. Not much, but it did indeed sound like the contessa. I searched for more, but… well, I shall not Bore you with all my undertakings. I did some cross-checking and found something interesting. Now we are back to miss Entee. All these attacks had happened within the last month, starting on the 26th. The last time any pawn shop owner in Manehattan had seen miss Enntee was two days before. From what I could hear, she still had money, but she didn't sell anything.” He looked up from his papers. “Your highness. I am ashamed to admit this but.. I think… that she opened a grave and found something… she didn't expect.” “You want me to believe that there is a vampire loose? really? ” Blueprint cleared his throat. “I don’t want you to believe anything, your highness. What I want to focus your attention on in this: Someone has been biting ponies trying to drink their blood, and apparently done so with some success. It is probably that it is just a madmare. But she have attempted to drink blood. And she has been seen around her royal highness, Princess Twilight. And until we can’t explain where she is coming from… We have to be extremely careful.” Sunset was silent. Way to many thoughts passed through her mind in that moment. It was impossible… or was it? Her own wife was a siren, a shapeshifting being… but she was alive. A vampire was a ghost, or a ghoul, and those… that was different. That was not a thing, that was superstition. And yet… And yet… There was not a single thing that explained everything. Blueprint was right. Twilight was in some sort of danger. Slowly, she unfolded her wings. “Where is Twilight?” “Out in the city. She managed to escape from her bodyguards.” “Find her. Bring her back. Double her guard and don’t let her out of sight. Arrest Miss Entee and if possible, this “contessa”.” Blueprint nodded. “But for what, your highness?” “Conspiracy against the crown. Until we know what she is up to, she is to be assumed dangerous. Find her, chain her, and bring her here. I will question her personally when I return.” “And… where are you going?” Sunset walked up to the window, ready to take flight. “Manehattan. I need to look into this myself. Cancel court for the rest of the day, and alert the guard that I will arrive in 40 minutes.” ------- Canterlot Castle dungeon. Evening. The cell they had put Rarity into was dark, but thankfully not cold. She wore chains on all four hooves, but luckily they didn’t put a muzzle on her. She guessed that the chains wouldn’t hold her, but for the moment, that was not important. She had to make sure that Twilight was not getting hurt. What time was it? She wasn’t sure. She was feeling dizzy, and she was in desperate need of another shower. She did once ask a passing guard for that, it ended with him throwing a bucket of water at her. Well, at least they are loyal to the crown she muttered to herself. A few times, a posh Griffon had visited. He had said nothing, but Rarity knew. This was one of Sunsets guys, probably doing his best to drag her to the bench for something. Once or twice she had considered explaining everything to him, but considering how Sneaky had acted… why would he believe her? The voice was right. This was going to end badly, and she couldn’t do anything about it. The demon would feed. And then stay calm for many years. And she would have to run…far away. And never see Twilight again. She began to cry in silence, and in tears she fell asleep. ----- Dusty Hill Cemetary, the outskirts of Manehattan. Evening. Sunset and the five guards available had spent a good part of the afternoon searching through the cemetery for tracks, but it was not easy. The cemetery was old, and not in use. And the few grave still being kept were few and mostly located on the sunlit west side. But they kept going. Sunset knew that there had to be some sort of answer here. She trusted Blueprints [omdöme]. If Tee Entee was a graverobber, to be put away for 23 years, she was successful. An if she had been looking for something here, then something must be found. One of the guards came up to her. “Nothing in the north west sector, your highness. Are you sure?” “YES I…” she bit her lip. “Yes, liuetentant. I am sure.” “Pardon me for saying, but if you could give us any type of hint or clue to what we are looking for…” “A grave, liutenant.” “Yes, your highness. A grave.” She didn’t have to look at him to see him roll his eyes. They were surrounded by them. But… “We are looking for a crypt of somekind. One of the traces we have is after a grave robber. So it must be something big and something that must contain a number of valuables. And we will find it! If miss Enntee could find it, so can we!” Another guard came up to them. “Your highness. I think I have found it.” Sunset more or less dragged him over to what seemed to be more or less a grasscovered heap of dirt. “Is this…” “Yes, I believe so, your highness. My grandfather was an undertaker and he said that for a short time this was high fashion. For people who wanted to be buried with all their stuff, it was important that it didn’t drag any attention to it. But once you found the door… You wouldn’t be mistaken. It should be around… here.” The guard put his foot down and dug a little. “Strange… the earth seems to have been put back here rather recently. Did you say that this tomb was old, your highness?” Sunset didn’t reply, she focused all her magic on the point in the ground, and soon she had eviscarated the marble plates covering the entrance. With lit horns, they entered. The crypt was soon found empty, but there were traces of life, if you could associate that word with something that maybe was or believed it was a vampire. There were small stains of dried blood and a mark on the floor where a coffin had been. But not much else. Sunset had been to busy to uncover the tomb, but the lieutenant (probably on Blueprints orders) had called out for the presence of Dean Bloodstains, from the archaeological faculty of the school for gifted unicorns, and a part time consult for the coroner department of the guard. Once she had arrived, she had gently asked all the guards and Sunset to leave and let her do her work by herself. She had been inside for about one hour and Sunset had sent some guards away to get food. But now the dean appeared in the opening. Sunset was immediately on her hooves. “Well, miss Bloodstains?” “Well… it’s blood alright, and quite a lot of it. There are stains in at least five places. There has been attempts to clean it up, but not good enough for my equipment!” she managed a small smile. “The age is harder to say, without doing proper tests, but some stains are older. If I were to make a wild guess, there is not a stain more recent than a month. Some might be even older. There was also a trace of preservation magic, but that was much older. I need to get in touch with another colleague of mine to determine exactly how old…” “Alright. Thank you. That… only raises more questions, but hopefully I will get them tonight when I return to Canterlot… Pardon me for asking, but isn’t it strange that there are no records of who is buried here?” The dean shrugged her shoulders. “Well, It is not my area of expertise, but you know what they say? Money talks and can buy anything.” Sunset nodded. The contessa was rich after all. “However, you should be able to find the name.” “What?” “Yes, we actually had a case in another part of manehattan a few years back. Even if the graves were anonymous, the undertakers was usually superstitious, and put a kind of name chifre somewhere, to keep the dead inside, so to speak. But I can’t give you any details. Oh, but that young guard should know! He was there, and he mentioned having a relative who was… an…undertaker. “ Again, Sunset had ran over and dragged the guard with her. “Did you grandfather mention something about hiding the names?” For a second the guard, who had been dragged away from his carrot dog, looked really confused but then he collected himself. “Yeah… he said something about it. It was not to be placed on the actual door, but close enough so that one who knew what to look for would find it.” Sunset gave the guard her most stern eye. “Find it. NOW.” It took the guard about 15 minutes, but in the end he did find it under a bush. It was a square marble plate with what seemed to be a random mess of lines. “Is this it?” “Yes, your highness. It’s a name puzzle. A charm, if you want, put there to keep the dead in their coffins.” “Well, what does it say?” “Um…Well… I am not sure… Grams showed me but I don’t remember where to start…” “Try. You are the closest thing to an expert we have here!” The guard, named Beady Eye, would always remember this day as the most intense in his career, but it also made his family rather well to do, and he was granted a place at the very university Deen Bloodstain represented to one day become a part of the coroner unit. But today, he was still a 26 year old guard trying his best not to panic under the scrutinizing eyes of one of the princesses. “Hmm..That should go… no. but… No… But if that one… yea…no.” He saw the [otåliga look in the princesses eyes, and tried to concentrate. What did grams say… Always start at the bottom… which he had done… but maybe that was not the bottom… And finally he had it. “That part goes up, that one down, that to the right, that also down and… voilà!” He produced a piece of paper with words on it. Sunset Shimmer froze. RARITY BELLE-SPARKLE “What… what’s wrong, your highness?” At first she said nothing. She just stood there, like she couldn’t believe her eyes. Then she gave rapid orders. “Guards! Dean! Lieutenant. Continue the investigation. I want to know everything there is to know about this place, and I mean everything. Send a message to canterlot. The contessa must NEVER be alone with Princess Twilight. ” They all stood at attention.”As you wish! What about you?” “ I will return to Canterlot immediately. This is… worse than I though..” As she sped through the air, one single thought flew through Sunset Shimmer’s head. Rarity, Rarity… what in Tartaros happened to you? ---- Canterlot Castle dungeon. Later, the same evening. Rarity awoke with the feeling that she wasn’t alone. She wasn’t going to bother to get up, but in the end, her good upbringing won. You were always supposed to be a polite and good host. But the sight that awaited her as she stood up almost made her fall on the floor again. Twilight. Inside her cell. She was at loss for words, and her maw was around her knees. The first one to speak was Twilight. “Rareza… what have they done to you? What is wrong? Please tell me!” And then Rarity fainted.